Snakes and Stones

[Bogertophis]

Much better (& almost as easy as opening a can) to make vanilla buttercream frosting from scratch- & no "Franken-food" ingredients. Do you really want to eat something that has a shelf-life of "practically forever"- that even microbes don't want?

Not sure homemade frosting would go over any better with mice though- they like what they like, & they must have thought that stuff was from the moon?

Mice are not the garbage-disposals that rats are...rats would have been thrilled to lend a hand, or rather, their tongues. When I had rats, I'd always let them lick out my "empty" peanut butter jars, & they got them spotless!

BTW, there's nothing wrong with a guy that bakes & cooks...my brother is pretty good in the kitchen too, at least for some things- his specialties- & it gives his wife a break.

Vanilla buttercream frosting is my favorite, & very hard to mess up- I mostly don't even measure. Recipe is usually on box of confectioner's sugar or online- just conf. sugar, butter, milk (whole is best), vanilla, dash of salt. Set out to soften the butter- then blend & whip ingredients in electric mixer: roughly 1 box sugar, softened butter (about 1/3 -1/2 c.), 1 tsp. vanilla or a bit more if you want, dash salt, & enough milk to moisten to the right consistency- don't add it all at once- you want spreadable but not runny. I do not sift the sugar- no need. If you have too much, you can freeze the extra frosting for another time, but it's also good on graham crackers & other things.

P.S. Nice snake & amazing agate!